EDITOR`S NOTE

A recent survey by the Service Council showed that 70% of global manufacturing companies with small to large service operations are increasingly concerned with the lack of prospects to replace their retiring workforce.

However, less than half have implemented human capital management strategies capable of addressing talent shortage and competence development. It does not help either that scores of new STEM graduates and millennials, who in a perfect world should be lining up to join the ranks of highly skilled service teams within seemingly economically stable firms, see manufacturing jobs as old fashioned and dated and therefore not appealing.

Many service organizations now look into technology as a potential avenue to circumvent the lack of prospects to renew their existing human resources.

On the technology front, deep shifts in customer demands drive innovation at a riveting speed. Since Industrial IoT and digitalization have stopped being buzzwords meant for technologists, they have quietly slipped into the day-to-day dealings of service directors.

The use of robots, artificial intelligence or automated supports on the production line is not new. However their utilization to enhance organizational performance constitutes a new set of challenges for which very few are equipped.

By setting the agenda for Competence 4.0, we have come to realize a cross-departmental understanding of needs is lacking and that many organisations worry about their attractiveness for young talents. But, the new roles that will impact industrial companies are exciting and there is still time to put your strategy in place.

Come join us in Stockholm and let’s start building a strategy that will help define the future.